Total Carnage
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| Total Carnage | |
|---|---|
| File:Totcarn1.png | |
| Developer(s) | Midway Games, Black Pearl Software, Bally Midway Manufacturing Co. |
| Publisher(s) | Midway Games, Malibu Games, ICE, Hand Made Software, Ltd. Songbird Productions |
| Designer(s) | Mark Turmell Eugene Jarvis |
| Programmer(s) | Mark Turmell |
| Artist(s) | John Tobias |
| Composer(s) | Jon Hey |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Amiga CD32, Amiga, DOS, Atari Jaguar, SNES |
| Release | 1991, 1993, 1994, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Multi-directional shooter |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, playing simultaneously |
| Arcade system | Midway Y Unit hardware Main CPU: TMS34010 (@ 6.25 MHz) Sound CPU: M6809 (@ 2 MHz) Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2151 FM (@ 3.57958 MHz), DAC (@ 3.57958 MHz), OKI MSM6295 ADPCM |
Total Carnage is an arcade shooter, developed by Mark Turmell for Midway in 1991. The game was released for the SNES in 1993 and the Amiga CD32, Amiga, and DOS in 1994. Later the game was re-released in 2004, as part of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube game consoles. In 2005, an Atari Jaguar version was released by Songbird Productions, nearly ten years after work on the game originally began. It was re-released in 2006 as part of Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition for the PC.
Story
In Total Carnage, an evil Middle Eastern dictator named General Akhboob closes off his country to the rest of the world following a war in 1999. Hundreds of reporters flocked to the zone in hopes of getting a real scoop. Unfortunately for them, one of the reporters discovers that there's more than baby milk being made at the 'Baby Milk Factory'.
General Akhboob then captures the reporter, as well as all the remaining reporters in his country. It turns out that General Akhboob has been building an army of mutants and a stockpile of chemical weapons. He's also holding several American reporters and other civilians captive. It is up to the Doomsday Squad, composed of Captain Carnage (Player 1) and Major Mayhem (Player 2), to invade Akhboob's base, wipe out his forces, destroy the mutants, rescue all the hostages and capture Akhboob.
Along the way, Captain Carnage and Major Mayhem fight various mutants and monsters, a giant mutant cyborg named Orcus, and eventually General Ahkboob himself. Ahkboob transforms into several forms, including a series of three giant heads. After his defeat, he attempts to escape by releasing a swarm of copies, but is captured and executed by an electric chair.
The Doomsday Squad then decides to take a military leave to the Midway Pleasure Domes, a grotesque amusement park. The player(s) can only access this area if they collected 220 keys during the game. It is strongly hinted at that if one collects every item in the Midway Pleasure Domes something special will happen, but this is impossible if not very near to impossible.
Gameplay
Total Carnage features top-down shooter gameplay, in which the player has a birds-eye view of the situation. In the SNES version, the character on screen is controlled via the D-pad and the A, B, X, and Y buttons are used to control the direction of the shooting.
Development
In the arcade versions of this game, the player characters are named "Captain Carnage" (player 1) and "Major Mayhem" (player 2), instead of having their original names.
Jon Hey followed up his sound creation for Smash TV with the sound and music for Total Carnage. Ed Boon, who created Mortal Kombat for Midway along with John Tobias, was the voice of General Akhboob.
References